I've reported this over the phone on more than one occasion over the past couple of years with no results, so I thought that I'd mention it here just to see if anything different happens.
There is a problem with the way international Priority Mail shipping works when it comes to filling out the customs information. The issue is that the choices provided for the CATEGORY of the item being shipped are as follows:
- Commercial Sample
- Gift
- Documents
- Other
Notice what is MISSING from that list? How about the #1 most common item being shipped? It's "MERCHANDISE." Merchandise, for some reason, is NOT LISTED in the available choices for the category -- even though this is on the normal customs form that this form represents! So, if I'm shipping normal goods that someone bought -- which has GOT to be the most common category for PayPal people to be using -- then I have to select the "OTHER" choice. When you do that, you have to type in what you are shipping -- so I always type in "Merchandise" there since that is the missing option.
The kicker is that when you finally PRINT this label, it actually HAS "Merchandise" listed as an option -- and it is not checked! Instead, the "Other" box is checked with "Merchandise" written in (by me)!
So, clearly, Merchandise is supposed to be an option. It's ON THE PRINTED FORM as an option -- you just can't select it during the process!
I see this as a HUGE problem with doing international customs through PayPal and yet it has been this way for well over a year now! It's been reported over and over again -- and PayPal does nothing to fix it. The only response I've ever received was "Well, Pitney-Bowes does that form for us, so the problem is theirs." That is not an acceptable answer. If it is wrong, then PayPal needs to have Pitney-Bowes correct it -- not just blame them and ignore it.
Thousand and thousands of people have to be generating INCORRECT customs forms on a daily basis because of this error. I just don't see how nothing can be done about it after so long!
